Appel gives Stanford hand by scoring with each one

Appel, Stanford's sophomore center, will get the green light from her coach to shoot three-pointers if she finishes first nationally in field-goal percentage.

As of Monday, Appel ranked 17th in the NCAA. And she is shooting 58.6 percent from the field for the season. But she is on an upward trajectory, particularly over the past seven games, starting after she went 7-for-18 against UCLA on Jan. 4.

Stanford lost that game in Los Angeles 69-56 and the one after that at USC.

But the seventh-ranked Cardinal evened the score against the Women of Troy on Thursday night in emphatic fashion and are looking to do the same today against the Bruins at Maples Pavilion. UCLA has won three of its past five games against the Cardinal but hasn't won a road game at Stanford since Jan. 16, 1999.

Most players duck from bad game film. Appel wanted to break down the UCLA video with her coach as soon as the game was over.

"When we lost that game, I felt like our team was taken out of our game and Jayne was taken out of her game," VanDerveer said. "If you look at her field-goal percentage from that game on, it's been incredible."

Since the UCLA loss, Appel is shooting 76.8 percent from the field, including Thursday night's 9-of-10 performance against USC.

"I'm just trying to be more aware of what type of shots I'm taking," Appel said. "I still don't have it at 100 percent."

Talking about missing point-blank shots under the basket is a conversation VanDerveer and Appel have had quite a lot over the first year and a half of her college career.

But VanDerveer is starting to worry less about that aspect of Appel's game.

"She has matured so much and she's playing so confidently," VanDerveer said. "She can score with her right (hand) or her left. She's even trying her outside shot a little bit. Just to have her in there opens everything up for anyone else. She's been a rock for us."

Tenth-ranked Cal rebounded from last week's 20-point loss at Stanford to handle UCLA with relative ease, winning 67-53. It was the Bears' 13th straight home win, a run that dates back to last season.

Cal still holds first place in the Pac-10 standings by one game over the hard-charging Cardinal, who have won six in a row, five of those by at least 20 points.

Still, Cal showed its resilience in defeating UCLA.

"I thought we did a great job of learning from the Stanford game and moving forward," Cal coach Joanne Boyle said. "We took it to practice and we worked on it. The kids bought into it. They're very unselfish. You give them a task at hand and say this is how you can move forward and become a better team, and they're all about it."